Trouble in the Valley

Jaeyoung was facing his last summer vacation.

As a senior in high school preparing for the college entrance exam, the given period was short, but that meant he needed to enjoy it even more.

As a result, Class 1 of the 3rd grade at Cheongyeong High School decided to go on one last group trip.

“So, should we go to the beach or the valley?”

The class president asked, looking around at the other friends with a tired face.

Sitting around the long table were the class president, the vice-president, and three others who had responded to the president’s request for help.

They borrowed an unused club room to avoid disturbing the students doing mandatory night study.

“Pick one each, and then we’ll vote on the final destination.”

Jaeyoung, who had become one of the three helpers, doodled on a memo pad and casually replied.

“They all said they couldn’t be bothered and told us to decide on our own.”

The class president tapped the chalkboard with a face that showed he was more bothered than anyone else.

Jaeyoung, feeling similarly, wanted to get up from his seat right away, grab his hand, and run out of this room.

Jaeyoung was here because of his friend Mintest, who liked to take charge.

“Then let’s just go to the valley.”

Jaeyoung lay his cheek on the desk and mumbled.

He had stayed up all night playing endless matching games to recover lost rank, so his mind was half-asleep.

“Okay. We can’t let our mochi, with his fair skin, get a tan at the beach.”

Mintest covered Jaeyoung’s back and grinned lecherously.

Jaeyoung grimaced at the nickname that would only be given to puppies or babies.

It was a nickname he got because of his unusually fair skin among the boys.

He didn’t like it very much, but he couldn’t complain because the person who gave him the nickname was a terrifying existence.

“Is there a valley nearby where we can play in the water?”

“Are we going for a day trip?”

“Then we won’t be able to play properly.”

“If we stay overnight, do we have a room for thirty people?”

One person brought up an idea, another refuted it, and another criticized that opinion.

It was a meeting where it was hard to tell if they were motivated or not.

“For a valley… a friend of my parents runs a pension near a valley, and they have a few bungalows in the yard.

Since they’re separate outside, it doesn’t matter if we’re noisy at night, so wouldn’t that be okay?”

The class president cautiously raised his hand and offered a pretty good idea.

“Check with them first to make sure. It’ll be a disaster if we decide everything and then there are no rooms available.”

Jaeyoung’s face brightened, as he was getting tired of the unproductive meeting.

The class president nodded his head.

“If they say yes, ask about the room rates, how we can handle washing up and meals, and the check-in and check-out times.”

As soon as Jaeyoung finished speaking, the vice-president rattled off more things to ask, and the class president’s eyes gradually lost focus.

Jaeyoung wrote down the things the vice-president had said on a note and handed it to the class president.

“Then I’ll go call them and come back.”

With his mission assigned, the class president took his smartphone and quietly left to find a place to make a call.

“Let’s assume it’s a yes and think about what we need to buy.

We’ll be hungry as soon as we get there, so let’s buy lunch and just think about dinner and breakfast.”

Jaeyoung, wanting to go home as soon as possible, started talking in earnest.

“Dinner is barbecue, of course!”

No one objected.

Jaeyoung wrote down ‘Dinner: Barbecue’ in large letters.

Then the vice-president poked him in the side.

“If we can’t cook, let’s order chicken or something.”

“I’m happy with meat!”

Jaeyoung glared at Mintest, who was just excited without doing anything.

“You have to be the one grilling.”

“Of course, of course. Grilling is my specialty.”

Mintest said with a hearty laugh, as if it were obvious.

Jaeyoung smiled faintly and lowered his head again.

Then he opened an app, searched, and calculated the average accommodation and food costs.

“Breakfast is ramen, right?”

Mintest, who thought that ramen was the obvious choice for the morning after the trip, said excitedly.

Jaeyoung nodded in agreement.

“From the morning? You’re not planning on drinking, are you?”

The vice-president’s eyes gleamed sharply.

He was fun to hang out with, but he was also so strict about rules that it was suffocating.

Jaeyoung gently shook his head.

“We don’t have the budget for that.”

The vice-president stared at him with a warning look until the end, and Mintest pouted his lips, feeling wronged.

“He said we don’t have the budget.”

“Then let’s put the menu aside, what do we need to buy?”

Jaeyoung tapped the notebook with the end of his pen to divert the vice-president’s attention.

“Meat, ramen, we need to buy some instant rice too, lettuce and perilla leaves……”

“We also need to buy paper cups and drinks.”

True to their age, where they were serious about food, even the one who had just been taking up space until now opened his mouth enthusiastically.

Jaeyoung’s hands, which were writing everything down, became busy as well.

Bang!

“Guys! It’s a yes!”

At that moment, the class president, who had gone out to make a call, opened the door all the way and came in.

Perhaps because he had solved the biggest problem, the tired look had completely disappeared from his face.

‘The meeting will finally be over.’

Jaeyoung’s face also brightened.

The class president probably had the same thought in his head as him.

Finally, that day came.

As they were at an age where they needed to grow, they ate samgyetang at a nearby restaurant as soon as they arrived and headed to the valley.

“How is it? Perfect, right?”

The class president raised his chin with a triumphant expression.

As he said, it was a secluded valley with plenty of water.

“But is there something wrong with this place? Why are there so few people?”

Dongjun looked around at the sparsely populated area and offered a reasonable suspicion.

“No, there wasn’t any water here until last year. So, I heard that people stopped coming.”

“Really? Did it suddenly rain a lot this year?”

Dongjun tilted his head and nodded.

The others didn’t seem to care as long as they could have fun.

It wasn’t like there was no one there at all.

The valley was divided into tiers like steps, and on the level just below them, a family had set up a tent on a flat rock and was eating watermelon.

“Then, let’s set up a tent here and spread out a mat.”

They wanted to play quickly, so their actions were quick too.

With a few skilled people pitching in, the tent was set up in no time.

The first to occupy the mat spread out in front of the tent was the vice-president.

“Aren’t you going to play?”

“I just like reading books in the valley.”

When Jaeyoung asked, the vice-president held up the book in his hand.

A cool breeze was blowing gently, and the sound of the valley water flowing ceaselessly was so constant that there was no need to turn on ASMR separately, making it the perfect environment for reading a book.

He could never understand reading even when he came to play.

“Everyone, put your luggage in the tent.”

At the class president’s instruction, the children brought the luggage they had each brought.

They had taken the big luggage to the bungalow where they would be staying tonight, but they had brought out small things like towels to wipe themselves after playing in the water, and valuables.

“Should we all stand over there and do some exercise together?”

Mintest pointed to the parking lot above, his eyes twinkling.

He had a case of attention-seeking disease.

Jaeyoung chuckled and repeated sitting and standing in place.

Jaeyoung was the only one who was pretending to listen to Mintest’s words.

“Hey, the water is so cold.”

“Should hyung warm you up a bit?”

When Haewoon, who had put his feet in the water first, shuddered, Dongjun playfully grabbed his waist.

The children grimaced and glared at him.

“If you’re going to do something crazy, pay for it.”

The class president gritted his teeth and held out his hand.

The conclusion was that no one paid attention to Mintest.

“Ugh, you bad guys!”

Since no one was playing with him, Mintest, who was starving for attention, lay down on the water.

And he waved his arms and legs wildly like a whining child.

The surface of the water, which was hit hard, bounced off droplets of water.

“Oh, welcome, waterlogged rat~”

Haewoon, who knew the timing of Mintest’s outburst well, had already evacuated to the rock.

Then he looked down at Mintest, who was covered in water alone, and twisted his lips.

“Aaaagh! You look just like your hyung, you bastard!”

“Is he crossing the line?”

Haewoon’s face contorted at Mintest’s shout.

People praised his brother as a hero, but Haewoon would get upset whenever someone said he looked like him.

“But honestly, even if you feel bad, isn’t hyung the one who’s wrong?”

Jaeyoung whispered to Dongjun in a voice loud enough for Haewoon to hear.

“Yeah. If he were here, Seo Mintest would be dead.”

Dongjun nodded in agreement.

Jaeyoung smiled as he looked at Haewoon, who was huffing and puffing, and waved his hand at Mintest.

“Come out quickly. You shouldn’t move too vigorously right after eating.”

“Yes, Mom~”

As soon as Jaeyoung called out in a sweet voice, Mintest got up with a smile.

“Uh?”

However, Mintest, who was walking towards Jaeyoung, staggered.

And suddenly his figure disappeared before his eyes.

Instead, transparent bubbles filled the spot where he had been.

“Hey, attention-seeker! Don’t joke around. The water only comes up to your thighs.”

Dongjun, who didn’t like dangerous jokes, frowned and shouted.

However, Mintest’s figure was still not visible, and even the air bubbles that had been rising up no longer rose.

“Didn’t something really happen?”

Someone said in an anxious voice.

The bottom of the valley was uneven, so the water depth was also erratic.

Even if the place where they were standing was thigh-high, the area in front of them was only enough to stand on their tiptoes.

“Seo Mintest!”

Anxiety spread quickly.

The children gathered around the water and called out Mintest’s name.

The kids who had already been in the water like Mintest moved to the spot where he had been standing and disappeared.

“Don’t go in! There may be places where the water suddenly gets deep in valleys or rivers……”

Haewoon reached out his arm and stopped the friends who were trying to move.

At the urgent warning, the friends who were trying to check the spot where Mintest had fallen became stiff in their spots.

“Yes, this is 119, right?”

Jaeyoung checked that Dongjun was reporting it and wet his body by putting water on his hands.

“What is it, what’s going on!”

Even the vice-president, who had been sitting alone on the mat, ran over and asked.

It was such a commotion that even the people on the levels just above and below were craning their necks to see what had happened.

“Mintest went into the water and didn’t come out……”

The class president said in a trembling voice, as if muttering.

He seemed to be panicking, afraid that something might happen at the place he had brought them to.

“Get a hold of yourself.”

Jaeyoung said in a subdued voice and gently tapped the class president’s cheek.

His shaking pupils found their place.

“Dongjun called 119, so you get all the kids out of the water and take a head count.”

“O-okay… thank…you, why…why are you…?”

The class president looked at Jaeyoung, who was taking off his t-shirt, and asked with a puzzled face.

“I have to go find Seo Mintest.”

Jaeyoung answered quickly and jumped into the water.

There was no time to delay.

Jaeyoung, who had the best athletic sense among his friends, was fortunately pretty good at swimming.

Jaeyoung, who had soaked his whole body, attempted to dive into the spot where Mintest had disappeared.

Time passed, and passed again.

“Isn’t he taking too long? If this goes on, even Kim Jaeyoung might get hurt……”

Haewoon bit his lip, unable to hide his anxiety.

“Vice-president! Give me my smartphone!”

Haewoon shouted with an impatient look.

Dongjun looked back at Haewoon with eyes mixed with worry and anticipation.

He was trying to contact Saheon.

It was then.

“Wah!”

“Aaaah!”

The children were startled by the roar behind them and screamed.

“Did I surprise you? Did I surprise you?”

“Huh? Mintest……”

When they turned around, there was Mintest, soaking wet.